


It Takes a Summer Vacation

by Anonymous



Category: Gravity Falls, 鬼滅の刃 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Anime), 鬼滅の刃 | Kimetsu no Yaiba (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Gen, Tags will be updated as the story progresses, general weirdness, no beta we die like mayflies, some characters are replaced and some remain the same
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:21:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24308887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: The two eldest Kamado siblings arrive in the sleepy town of Gravity Falls for some well-needed fresh air and a nice summer vacation, or so their parents insist.Or: the KNY x GF AU literally no one ever asked for.
Relationships: Kamado Nezuko & Kamado Tanjirou, Kamado Tanjirou & Tomioka Giyuu
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Don't ask questions because I don't have any answers regarding the origins of this fic.
> 
> The story will roughly follow Gravity Falls' storyline, but will probably completely diverge from there.
> 
> As a note, some characters may remain the same, like Bill Cipher. Others may also be a lot different considering the very different universe they're in, but I'm hoping to at least get their rough personalities down somehow.
> 
> Thank you for reading!

Despite his repeated protests, Tanjirou had found himself packing his bags and most of his belongings along with Nezuko, to be shipped off to a small town called Gravity Falls for the summer at their parents' insistence, much to his distress.

Now, don't get him wrong, but he does love his parents dearly and wouldn't really trade them for anything else if he was given the choice.

At the same time, though, the only resounding echo in his mind at the moment is a rather shocked "I'm sorry, but what made you think that this was a good idea?", and he was pretty sure Nezuko shared the sentiment, as much as she simply kept her mouth shut and just let it happen, by contrast to his vocal frustration, even if that didn't do much in the end except make for small delays.

At least, according to their parents, they needed a much-needed vacation as a reward for being very great elder siblings, and perhaps some time together so they could get some nice bonding time by themselves.

Which was how they found themselves in a rather empty bus, seated in front of each other as they waited for it to stop and announce their arrival. The emptiness of the vehicle really served nothing except to make Tanjirou miss his younger siblings further, especially since most of this trip had been very _quiet._

Nezuko was currently entertaining herself with her smartphone, her hair tied into a lazy bun that she was using as a bit of a pillow, leaning back against the bus seat, tapping away at some offline game she had installed on the device before they were eventually hauled off to the bus stop, while Tanjirou derived his entertainment from a novel about demons, occasionally paying attention to the window, not that there was much to see except more trees, and the occasional sign telling them how close they were getting to the town.

"Hmm," Nezuko finally hummed, not really looking up from her phone screen as she spoke up, "do you think Gravity Falls would be a nice place? Since it's going to be just us there..."

Tanjirou wasn't sure how to answer that. He didn't even know that place besides seeing the flyers advertising it (handed to them by their parents a few weeks before they were sent off), and he certainly didn't know anything about the person they were going to live with for the summer.

"That'd probably depend on whether Mr. Tomioka is going to be a nice guardian," was his answer, and he simply kept it at that for the meantime.

Despite the reassurances that this Mr. Tomioka was a close family friend, he... really wasn't so sure about it. He had never met the man in his life, after all, so he was, for all intents and purposes, a complete stranger.

And they were going to live with him, in _his house,_ for this entire summer.

He sighed to himself. It was a touch too late for those thoughts to overwhelm his mind. They were now on the bus and simply awaiting for the inevitable arrival to the town.

The sensation of his sister's hand pulling his hair back soon interrupted his sinking further into the depths of his thoughts, and he jolted in response, his eyes meeting hers.

"...Hey!"

Nezuko simply frowned in response to his yell, before pointing at a certain spot on his forehead, and Tanjirou immediately felt a bit self-conscious as he realised just what she had exposed. Thank goodness they were the only ones on the bus. Just as quickly as she had pulled his hair back, he brushed his hair to cover that spot once again.

"Ugh, you know that birthmark's embarrassing."

"But it's not! It's like a flame pattern, which is cool!"

The bus suddenly halted, and what would have been siblings bickering instead turned into something else, as Tanjirou almost toppled over on the spot, only managing to keep himself on his seat by gripping onto it as tightly as possible, and, a bit disoriented, he craned his head to turn and face the window, blinking as he saw a sign with the words "Welcome to Gravity Falls" written on it.

Oh, so they've arrived at the town already. Figures.

Nezuko recovered faster than he did from that little ordeal. Without as much as a protest, she quickly grabbed at their bags, humming cheerfully as she began to head out, passing by empty seats, and Tanjirou ultimately had no choice but to follow her, although as soon as he caught up, he took the bags and carried them off the bus stairs, hopefully to avoid scratching their undersides, before settling it down besides them.

A dark-haired man with empty blue eyes greeted them as soon as they had stepped out, looking them over as if he had expected them, and they couldn't help but stay a bit still at the scrutiny. Tanjirou didn't know what to say about him. He didn't smell malicious, and there was something else he could detect...

... _Oh_.

Mr. Tomioka did look a lot younger than he had expected.

Eventually, after a few moments of processing the person in front of jim, Tanjirou found his words.

"Are you Giyuu Tomioka?" he asked, glancing at his sister, who was also occupied with curiously observing the seemingly-emotionless man in front of them. Emphasis on seemingly, because Tanjirou could _tell_ that there was something this man felt, and his smell definitely gave that away.

"Yes, I am."

Silence. As a few minutes passsd, Giyuu didn't look that amused, and then he simply sighed, approaching the bags near the two siblings (both of whom were still frozen in place and just looking the man over), and then quickly lifting them up as if he were carrying a few cardboard boxes, and not heavy luggage containing most of the siblings' belongings.

"Well, follow me," was the next thing he said, and without waiting for a response from any of the two, he had turned around and was preparing to walk towards his house, still hauling their bags without any visible effort exerted.

Tanjirou and Nezuko shared glances at each other, feeling like they were thinking the exact same thing at the moment, before eventually following their guardian, finally leading to a rather humble by the town's edge.

This was definitely going to be a very interesting summer.


	2. The Shack and The Book

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tanjirou and Nezuko end up meeting some of the residents of Gravity Falls.
> 
> Oh, and they find a book, but that's a story for another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote all of this in the span of a few hours and I'm somewhat proud of myself. Although given that I only have the basics jotted down for the meantime, and a few details not decided on, I suspect that my pace might slow down after some time.
> 
> If you have suggestions or ideas for where I could potentially take this story, feel free to let me know in the comments! They encourage me to keep going!

The house they were staying in was, at least, a fairly comfortable one, and Mr. Tomioka had been kind enough to carry their bags to the rather spacious (and unused) room in the second floor, before quickly handing them necessities like mattresses, pillows, blankets, and then heading back to work, but not before telling the two to rest up for the meantime.

Which brought them to the second detail: apparently, this house was also a tourist trap that featured a museum catering to the odd and strange, which was an especially odd thing to think about, since Nezuko was very sure that Giyuu wasn't the best at social affairs in general, and Tanjirou agreed with her.

When they finally climbed down after taking a few hours resting, they finally found the answer in the form of a young woman with a very strange colour of hair and a cheerful demeanour.

"Oh, hello! Are you the kids that Giyuu was talking about?"

And, just like that, she had settled down in front of them and was quite happily squishing Nezuko's cheeks, laughing merrily before retreating and looking them over.

"You're both so cute! No wonder he would be glad to take you in!"

She introduced herself as Mitsuri Kanroji (with a "please, just call me Mitsuri") afterwards, and explained that she worked for Mr. Tomioka as some kind of guide for the tourist trap, and the siblings quietly agreed that she was definitely one of the reasons why this house got as many visitors as it could.

And probably the reason why Giyuu could get away with the rather exorbitant prices in the tourist trap.

She had to leave to guide a small group of visitors, however, so the siblings simply went back to exploring the rest of the house, as well as the other people who worked there.

Kyoujurou Rengoku was one of those interesting employees, with hair akin to flames and a rather fancy cape that evoked a similar design. If Tanjirou could describe him with a single word, it would be "loud". He managed the gift shop section of the house, persuading people to buy the rather absurdly-priced merchandise.

Although, to be fair, the aforementioned merchandise was fairly high-quality. From what Kyoujurou had said, they were produced by another employee called Tengen Uzui, who had an eye for style and flamboyance.

So, all in all, the employees of the house were odd, and the siblings had the growing feeling that the other residents of the town would be just as quirky, even as they eventually headed outside and into the woods nearby.

"Be careful!" Mitsuri had yelled out when she saw them walk out the door. "There's a lot of strange things out there!"

Nezuko had settled for deciding to give the surroundings a look-around for the meantime, so Tanjirou simply let her do that for now, taking a deep inhale as he prepared to venture out to the woods.

Funny, that. He could have sworn something was just _off_ with the place from the scent, but he couldn't pick up what was wrong. Probably because it was all unfamiliar, he decided to himself.

For no particular reason, he ventured deeper into the woods, taking experimental sniffs here and there, hoping to get his nose acclimated to the scents of the town.

Instead, what he received was a rather _metallic_ and rusty smell. It was a bit of a startling scent, and Tanjirou almost fell over in response, wincing at the unwelcome odour. He was usually better at this, but that was just...

He shook his head and looked around the area, eventually zeroing in on the source: a tree trunk.

Going from what he had just sensed, it was no normal tree trunk. He reached out, feeling the coolness indicative of metal in his hands, and with some fumbling, he eventually pulled a small door open.

The sight of a strange radio-like device and two switches greeted him, smelling of rust, spiderwebs, and moss.

He blinked. Okay, definitely not at all what he was expecting to find in the woods. Now, what to do with it...

He supposed he could just slam the door closed and just forget he ever came across it. It could mean trouble if he tried to fiddle with it. But, at the same time, maybe he might find something interesting if he did.

The second feeling won. In a moment Tanjirou could've sworn to be him being _completely careless and having no sense of self-preservation,_ he had placed his hand on one of the switches, and given it a little flick.

A sound rumbled behind him, and he nearly jumped in response, his body tensing, turning to face the source...

...and found a strange little trapdoor that had opened on the ground. From the angle he was in, he couldn't really see what it contained, but from the scent, it was nothing harmful.

Just as quickly, he could feel the tension leaving his body, his shoulders relaxing. Not a deathtrap, thank goodness. He approached the trapdoor, expecting to see a staircase, but he instead found a dusty old book that had been stored there for some time, and he picked it up to examine it, dusting it off with his hands before continuing, just to see what this thing was all about.

The number '3' was on the cover, on top of some symbol he couldn't recognise (possibly damaged due to ageing, he thought), and Tanjirou took a little note of this detail as he eventually opened the book to the first page to see—

"Tanjirou, I've been looking all over for you! Where have you been?"

He quickly shut the book, yelping in surprise as his sister just raised an eyebrow at him, her hands on her hips. He smiled, although he could feel his lips twitch from a little bit of anxiety.

"Oh, hi, Nezuko!"

"Don't just 'hi' me. What's that thing you've got?"

Tanjirou gave a glance at the book in his hands, then at Nezuko's inquisitive expression, and he bit his lip. It was a bit tempting to simply tell her that it was nothing and check this whatever-this-was for himself, but... that was his younger sister in front of him, and they were going to be stuck in this town for the rest of the summer.

The decision came fairly easily, and he looked at her, standing up to face her, as she took at step back to give him some space, her eyes occasionally flicking down to the opened trapdoor, then back at her sibling.

"We should probably get back inside first."

Nezuko simply gave him another _look_ in response, but she decided not to voice out her protest for the meantime, instead turning back to head back to the house titled as "The Mystery Shack".


	3. The Mysteries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The book they've found is an interesting one, but are its contents real or not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to really think of a solid continuity for this concept, or otherwise, I'm going to look utterly stupid.

Thankfully for the siblings, the employees of the Mystery Shack were busy managing a rather unruly group of tourists in an exhibit containing horror-themed creatures, and they had taken advantage of the noise to rush towards the second floor and into their bedroom, Nezuko slamming the door shut behind them as they settled on their beds, the book still in Tanjirou's hands.

In a few minutes, they began flipping over the pages of the book, being treated to rather lavish descriptions and illustrations of creatures such as gnomes, zombies, and the like, their eyes nearly popping out at the sight.

"Whoa, that's kind of interesting!"

"Did we just get a book written by some crazy guy?"

Well, _what was this?_ It seemed too good to be true, and Tanjirou's fingers travelled through more of the leaves of the book, before finally landing on a part where all the writing just... stopped. Okay, maybe he missed a few pages there.

He quickly turned the book, before moving back a few pages—

—and found large letters written on one of them, crudely written as if hurried, or perhaps forced, and underlined for emphasis.

**TRUST NO ONE.**

Tanjirou blinked at the words, while Nezuko simply harrumphed, crossing her arms.

"Whoever wrote that thing must've had a few screws loose, no offence. I mean, ghosts, zombies, gnomes?"

He couldn't really agree with her that much. Something about this book smelled _off,_ and he could pick up the smell of blood on it, as well as a few unpleasant scents¹ from its pages that he couldn't identify.

"I don't know," he finally muttered in response, flipping through some page depicting a plaid-ypus of some kind, before closing the book in his hands, and then collapsing onto the mattress that was his bed, "something about it just smelled odd. Maybe there's some truth to those entries?"

Nezuko looked him over for a few moments, and she nodded, her expression softening.

"Well, maybe," she conceded, crossing her legs and plucking the book out of Tanjirou's hands, randomly flipping to an entry about zombies, "but they're still a bit weird."

"I mean, the people we've met in this house alone seem weird."

"That's also true."

Tanjirou sat back up, looking at the book, which Nezuko was idly scrolling over, and an idea came to his mind.

"Say, maybe we can take that home once the summer's over. It'd definitely be something our siblings might want to read!"

Before Nezuko could reply, however, the softest _thump_ vibrated downstairs, and she bolted up from her position, looking a bit bewildered, and then looking at her brother.

She pushed the book to his hands and headed to the door.

"I'll go check that out. You can read the book while I'm down there!"

And then she was gone, her footsteps echoing down as she quickly headed down and outside the house, leaving him with the book.

He simply settled for putting it down on the bed for now, opting to observe the ongoings outside via the bedroom window, and it didn't take long for him to notice Nezuko helping up some kind of teenager in a hoodie.

Might as well go check that out. Picking up the book and shoving it inside his trusty checkered jacket for safekeeping, he ambled down the stairs and to the mostly-vacant living room.

And froze.

That didn't smell like anything normal. Hell, he wasn't sure if it smelled _human_ at all. He felt his body tense, and he eventually looked at the stranger, who was seated on the couch and looking contemplative, while Nezuko was pouring him a glass of water.

No, this wasn't it. The book he just found was putting things in his mind, probably. He wasn't even sure if those entries were even completely real, anyway.

The teenager turned to him, and raised a hand as if to say hello.

"Hey."

Ah, crap. Here Tanjirou was, assuming this poor stranger to be something other than human, when he didn't seem that malicious at all. He inhaled, and tried to calm himself down.

_'I'm not in my home, this is a new town. People won't smell like what you're used to...'_

Those mental reassurances didn't help much. Something about this teenager just didn't feel right, for some reason.

In his haze, he hadn't noticed that his sister and the stranger were in the midst of conversing a little after she had given him some water to drink, although the guy was quite terse, keeping his responses curt for the most part.

"Oh, I'm Nezuko Kamado. That's my older brother, Tanjirou! What's your name?"

The teenager paused. Then, as if struggling somewhat, he spoke slowly. Tanjirou wasn't sure what to say to that, but it only served to raise his suspicions higher.

"I'm... Nor... Man..."

"Nice to meet you, Norman..." Tanjirou replied, and he had to avert his gaze this time. Why did this feel so _wrong,_ somehow? Was it the smell, or was it something else entirely?

He looked at Nezuko, then at this "Norman" once more. A part of him wanted to ask the teenager _what_ he was outright, but if he did that, he could put himself in danger.

Or just look really, really stupid. Neither were options he wanted to entertain right now. He was out of his element, and he didn't want to have his extraordinary sense of smell to be his downfall.

He really needed to look for more evidence besides something that only a few people would believe in, didn't he?

If he made a look while thinking to himself, Nezuko definitely took notice, as her eyes narrowed, before she stood up and sighed.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to talk a bit with Norman here. It's pretty nice to know people who are actually around our age here, you know."

The words tumbled out of Tanjirou's mouth before he could put a stop to them.

"I mean, uhh, sure, no problem!"

His sister's face brightened, and she smiled, nodding at him.

"Great! See you around, brother!"

With that, she quickly headed out of the house with Norman in tow.

Tanjirou had to resist the sudden urge to slap himself across the face for actually doing that.

"What was I thinking, just letting her hang out with that—"

_'Okay, okay, maybe I'm actually wrong and I've just gotten a bit too imaginative. It isn't as if I've properly read the entries, anyway...'_

Speaking of, he needed to head upstairs and read that book again. He could probably keep an eye on Nezuko thanks to the window, so it shouldn't be too much trouble for the meantime.

At least, he hoped it would work that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm using information based on Journal 3 and its Blacklight Edition (although I do not own the latter, so expect my knowledge on that part to be incomplete) for this, so expect some mild spoilers in that regard. 
> 
> Skip this note if you wish to avoid that information.
> 
> ¹ [In the Blacklight Edition of Journal 3, it's mentioned that the invisible ink utilised venom. I'd imagine that it have an unpleasant scent that Tanjirou would pick up.]


	4. The Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The siblings finally have a first encounter of the strange and the unnatural. How would they deal with that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delays, but we're finally actually getting somewhere in the story!
> 
> The gnome encounter is a bit short, unfortunately, partly since it's meant to be a starter, and not exactly going to be the biggest thing. Perhaps future events and encounters will be longer!

Tanjirou had simply resorted to biting his tongue and climbing up to the room assigned to him and his sister, even if _something_ gnawed at him to keep an eye out, and to watch whoever that "Norman" is, his hands clutching at that worn journal. If he didn't have any self-control, and if he were less kind he suspected that he would've already strolled right out, grabbed Nezuko by the arm, and dragged her back to the house despite her protests that she was old enough and didn't need any protection.

He groaned, collapsing onto the mattress and letting the book land on his stomach. This _had_ to be his imagination getting to him.

...Well, it didn't hurt that much to do a little investigating, right? A few videos wouldn't be that much of a problem.

 _That's it!_ He didn't pause or hesitate this time, and he immediately sprinted down the stairs—

—and slammed straight into Kyoujurou, toppling and ending up landing on his bottom, and he hissed in pain as he felt his legs hit some of the steps.

"Ow!"

The strange man was more than ready to help out, quickly lifting Tanjirou to his feet, and giving him a quizzical look. With his overall appearance, the redhead couldn't help but liken him to an owl.

"Sorry," he apologised, raising his hands and stepping back to give the man some space, "I was just looking for something."

Kyoujurou simply flashed him a reassuring smile, before reaching out to pat him on the head (earning a surprised noise from Tanjirou, who was not expecting that gesture). "You should be careful next time, my boy! What are you looking for?"

Tanjirou glanced around the shack, and frowned.

"A video camera. Just... something to take videos of."

The man who looked like an owl flashed another bright smile, before pointing over to the cashier area of the gift shop.

"Well, it's a good thing you asked! There's a few in the cabinets over there!"

And with that, Kyoujurou had sauntered off to do... whatever his job had him do, Tanjirou supposed, as he eventually wandered over to the cabinets where the cameras were kept.

He was probably never going to get fully used to the weird people in this town.

He pulled a few cabinets open, eventually opting to take a camera with an articulating screen, and he quickly took the case with it (plus a battery or two) before quickly heading back to his room.

Soon enough, he had moved over to the windows, prying them open, and observing Nezuko and "Norman". They were just hanging around the Mystery Shack, but not going too far.

Which meant the perfect time to go ahead and start recording. Tanjirou quickly zoomed in, and began to video the overall period.

* * *

Tanjirou frowned at the videos, quickly fast-forwarding and occasionally rewinding them.

Give or take a few hours, and the two eventually wandering off to a region where he couldn't really see them, he was left with multiple recordings.

And _none_ of them showed any indication that Norman was, well, not normal. He seemed like a pretty average guy, if a bit dark and broody, and this left the redhead sighing to himself as he reviewed the videos once again, rubbing at his temples.

"Nope, none of that," he muttered, idly looking at a series of recordings of Norman and Nezuko, "there's nothing! I'm just being paranoid. Here they're just talking, and one of these has Norman falling into a shallow grave, here's another of him just staring off into space... heck, there's even this one where his hand fell off and he—"

_"Wait, what?"_

Rewind. His fingers shook, and he watched with bated breath as, in one of the recordings, Norman's hand fell off, before the teenager quickly went to reattach it, almost as if nothing had happened. Tanjirou's blood froze.

_Oh, no._

He nearly broke the camera as he quickly rolled over and grabbed the journal, flipping over pages and pages to—

_They may be mistaken for teenagers. Beware Gravity Falls' undead._

Nezuko was with a _zombie._ She was in danger. It'd probably eat her. He didn't know where she went, and he was wasting his time watching video recordings instead of looking for her.

He might be too late.

"Nezuko!"

* * *

There were a lot of things in Nezuko's to-do list.

Getting kidnapped by a bunch of gnomes pretending to be a teenager and trying to force her into marrying them was _not_ one of those things.

"Agh, let me go!" she yelled, trying to squirm out of the ropes that the little suckers had tied her up with, before sighing, looking at the restraints. Of course they wouldn't budge.

"I never asked to be your wife! I was going to _help you get back,_ and this is how you repay kindness? You're a bunch of freaks!"

Jeff had the gall to look offended at that, and he raised his finger at her as he spoke up.

"Hey, miss, we're not all that bad! If you just agreed to the marriage in the first place, we wouldn't have to tie you up."

He paused. "So now we're doing it by force."

Before he could properly approach Nezuko, however, the sound of a cart interrupted them, followed by a redhead rushing out, shovel in hand, practically yelling out a war cry as he rushed towards his sister.

Then comically stopping, his expression morphing from anger to absolute confusion at the sight before him, shovel still raised.

"...What."

Jeff quickly recovered, thankfully, rubbing his hands together and looking at the bewildered Tanjirou, as if he were simply some visitor.

"Oh, nothing! You just came in at an awkward time! All we were planning was to marry your sister and make her our queen, all one thousand of us!"

The leader of the gnomes didn't get to say anything else besides that, as Tanjirou had opted to swat him away with his shovel, before quickly grabbing Nezuko, untying her, and then jumping onto the cart, quickly starting the vehicle and swerving away before Jeff could recover from the rather hard hit.

As they sped away from the forest, and hopefully back to the house, Nezuko took another breath, gazing at her brother and managing a weak smile.

"Thanks for helping me out there," she murmured, rubbing her arms, "I can't believe Norman turned out to be a bunch of _gnomes._ Like two kids in a trenchcoat."

Tanjirou simply nodded, his eyes on the wheel. He... probably wasn't going to ever tell Nezuko about the fact that he thought Norman was a zombie, nope. That would be even more awkward to explain.

At least, _now_ he knew what gnomes smelled like, so he could look out for them if they appeared again.

Speaking of, what was that smell and why was it so intense?

"Army of gnomes coming right at us!" Nezuko yelled, quickly taking hold of the shovel that once belonged to him, and deflecting some of the gnomes thrown at them, and Tanjirou winced at the sight of the massive gnome monster on the side mirror, quickly approaching.

How were they going to deal with that?!

He didn't have the time to answer that, as a tree trunk thrown at them quickly sent them flying off the cart, and tumbling onto the ground, the shovel and a leaf blower rolling near them as they landed.

Tanjirou could feel his cheeks sting as he blearily looked up. They probably got scratched.

Nezuko groaned, quickly adjusting herself to stand up, meanwhile, her eyes on the giant gnome monster as it loomed before them. Her eyes shimmered, with that look that indicated that she had a _plan_ that Tanjirou would certainly not like.

But, before he could even protest, she simply looked at him and shook her head. _Trust me this time._

She turned to face the amalgamation of gnomes, sighed, and raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Alright, alright! You win! I'll take your hand in marriage!"

Just like that, the gnome monster _dispersed_ between the siblings' eyes, and Jeff hopped down, approaching Nezuko with the giddiest look in his eyes. Tanjirou almost wanted to drag him away right then and there, if he wasn't aware that doing so would probably screw up whatever devious plan Nezuko has planned.

If she was really going to go along with the marriage, he would probably end up actually strangling her, despite his general kindness.

"Alright!" Jeff yelled out, grinning widely and quickly revealing a ring, approaching her as she leaned down to his level.

"Now, Nezuko Kamado, I proclaim you the Queen of the Gnomes and our eternal—"

Nezuko simply responded by kicking him. _Hard._ Tanjirou couldn't help but admire his little sister's strength as the gnome leader was sent flying somewhere in the forest, disappearing as a mere speck in the canopy. He shifted.

The rest of the gnomes looked wholly lost. There was a shovel and a leaf blower close to the siblings.

Tanjirou leapt into action, and so did Nezuko, going for the shovel and the leaf blower respectively, and quickly swatting and blowing away all of the gnomes they could get close enough to, which wasn't too daunting, as the remaining gnomes at least had enough sense to run away, and back to the forest.

The trip back to the Shack was a mostly awkwardly quiet one. The cart wasn't actually damaged, thankfully, simply thrown to its side thanks to the incoming tree trunk. Whoever designed it was probably an expert... or simply knew of the strange ongoings here.

After a few minutes of driving, and as the Shack began to loom over their heads, Nezuko broke the silence.

"I still can't believe Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes."

"I mean, I thought he was a zombie at first, so it could've been worse."

She shot him a _look._

"You... thought he was a zombie?"

 _"Ah, darn."_ Tanjirou had to hold back the incoming wince. He wanted to avoid that topic.

"...Yeah, I thought he was a zombie and he was going to eat you."

Nezuko looked him over again, sighed, shook her head, and gave him a longer look. Tanjirou could already feel the dread welling up.

"We're going to have to talk about that once we get to our room."

The trek back to their beds wasn't exactly as fast as they had expected, however, as they were met by Mitsuri's worried face, and the young woman had quickly pulled out the leaves and branches stuck in their hair.

"Oh, dear! Whatever happened to you two? You should get some rest for the meantime!"

And before they could even comment further, she had waved Mr. Tomioka over to them, and eventually convinced him to let the siblings get a little something from the gift shop.

"I suppose it can count as a present," he finally said, opening the doors to the room where they kept the stocks of the merchandise. Tanjirou blinked at one of the hats presented, looking at its design inquisitively, with the white flower with the red centre, much like his father's earrings, and he eventually plucked that out and put it onto his head.

Nezuko, meanwhile, had picked out a _grappling hook,_ of all things ("for protection in case we encounter more strange things again," she would insist later), and soon enough, they had eaten dinner and were seated on their beds, the journal being passed on between them as they read through some of its entries, eventually finding the page about gnomes, and amending its pages with some revisions, and perhaps some new entries.

While the adventure with the gnomes was definitely quite daunting and perhaps a bit scary, the siblings had to admit that this was probably going to be the most interesting summer they've had in ages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, please leave a kudos or comment with your thoughts and suggestions! They help me keep writing!


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